Gluing Up; Running Backwards

After work today, I spent a couple of hours planing up all the boards and then looking at arranging them and gluing them together in to ‘layers’ that’ll then be sliced up in to shorter blocks and then assembled to created the complete boards.

I haven’t really got a lot else to say on this at the minute… My dust extractor bag filled up shortly before I prepared for my final passes of each board through the thicknesser (very annoying when that happens; so frequently, too). So, at some point, I’ve got to clear a space to empty my extractor, which has already ‘over-flowed’ in to the filter bag with excess shavings and quite possibly back down the hose as well!

While all that glue was drying, I went off to the Post Office to collected a parcel that was waiting for me and it turned out to be the new capacitor I ordered for my Scheppach TKU site saw. Above, is a photo of the original capacitor inside the motor housing. It’s fairly easy to reach by tilting the arbour and you can see almost thirty-years’ worth of dust and shavings sitting on top!

Inside, it’s hard to see exactly where those wires are joining the circuit, which is one reason I found it easier to unscrew the junction box (the other would be that it’s also easier to insert and secure new wires in place).

My new capacitor also has “brown and blue” wires so, I was looking to make a like-for-like substitution… Each wire running from the old capacitor was somehow ‘bonded’ to one running from inside the motor housing. It didn’t look like a crimp to me so, I’m guessing they might have been soldered together? I don’t own a soldering iron and neither did I have any crimps of the right size or type… So, after trimming back the old sleeves to expose new wires, I chose to simply twist them together in pairs! 😳

Magnetic LED Light Mine

Not for the first time on this blog; I’d like to send some praise in the direction of the little LED Magnetic Light Mine that you can see above. It really is handy for illuminating small areas where a flash might otherwise saturate the scenery.

After much fiddling, I wired it up as it was before (taking photos always helps) and then, as I reconnected the saw to the mains and gingerly pushed the green button, I noticed something was different… I was actually sounding a lot slower. If I looked closely, I could also see that the blade appeared to be running backwards!! Oh dear. It looks like I might have to double-check my wiring in the morning.

It might also be worth noting that, on a couple of occasions even after making the capacitor switch, the saw and motor did not start and sat there, buzzing. So, even if I do get the blade running in the correct direction again; I’m now a little concerned that this could be a larger motor issue when I’m not prepared to throw any more money at it than the <£10 I’ve already spent.

4 responses to “Gluing Up; Running Backwards”

Hi olly
I have a newer model of the same saw and this is 16 amps, I now have a 16 amp socket fitted, but before I did this the saw would struggle to start if anything else was running, plug your saw directly into your socket and run nothing else
Hope this helps!
David

That’s an interesting comment. I noticed a while back that the modern TKU 4000 saw has a 2,200w 3HP motor but I’m sure that the plate on my older machine states that it’s much lower than that, almost half as much. What’s really interesting is that I’ve only ever had this same problem with one other machine and that was a Perform CCNPT planer/thicknesser with a 3HP/2,200w motor…

I do have a 16amp socket for my bandsaw so, I will try plugging the circular saw directly in to that. To be honest though, I do need an extension because the main lead is ridiculously short (we’re talking 2ft maximum). Maybe I should also look to replace that?